Library News Blog

The Digital National Security Archive provides access to primary documents relating to US foreign and military policy since 1945. These documents are from the National Security Archive, a non-profit research organization founded in 1985 by journalists and scholars to check rising government secrecy.

The database contains over 95,000 records -- more than 650,000 pages -- of original documents most of which were formerly classified and unavailable. Although the documents may be available in Presidential collections or other archives, this database allows you to cross-search across all documents by collection, subject or date or to search the full text by keywords.

See our exhibit case of resources related to the history of women police officers and the International Association of Women Poice in the Library's Niederhoffer Lounge, lower level.

A brief history of women police officers from 1845 to the 1970s

Female police officers have come a long way since the days of women police matrons. In the mid-19th century, women in law enforcement were limited to caring for women inmates and did not have the authority to make arrests. But the 20th century brought around incredible progress.

The first policewomen

Among the first policewomen, two stand out. In 1908, Lola Baldwin of Portland, Oregon was sworn in with an official badge, thereby becoming the first policewoman (Myers, 1995, p. 22; Duffin, 2010, p. 28). She had been working on behalf of unwed mothers and prisoners and in 1909 convinced the city council of Portland to establish the Department of Public Safety for the Protection of Young Girls and Women, which she directed.

Others contend that the honor of becoming the first policewoman goes to Alice Stebbins Wells of Los Angeles (Higgins, 1951, p. 824). She was given the authority to arrest suspects, was responsible for the supervision of dance halls, skating rinks, penny arcades and theaters, and maintained a bureau for women seeking advice. Wells would go on to make a strong impact nationally as she toured and spoke on the value of introducing women as police officers in many local communities. In 1915, the National Association of Policewomen organized with Ms. Stebbins Wells as the first president. The objectives of the association included disseminating information on the work of women police and seeking better training and higher educational standards.

Selections from the IAWP archives(click for large)

Professional women police

By the mid-20th century, another star among women police had risen. Lois Lundell Higgins was a Chicago policewoman who headed the Crime Prevention Bureau in Chicago during the 1950s and 1960s. She had a charismatic personality, was well educated with a master’s degree in Social Work, and was acclaimed for her work in crime prevention, particularly among juveniles. In 1956, Ms. Higgins and other policewomen re-established the International Association of Policewomen but renamed it the International Association of Women Police or IAWP.* Membership was limited to women who were sworn police officers, and biannual conferences were held starting in 1958. Ms. Higgins became the association’s first president, a position she held until 1964. By the 1950s, women were starting to be assigned to investigative and undercover roles like their male colleagues. It was a time of transition—Ms. Higgins, for instance, was not in favor of women officers having roles expanded beyond focusing on troubled women and juveniles. The loss of women’s bureaus was also a contentious issue during this decade because it resulted in a temporary stagnation of women rising in rank; on the other hand, policewomen were becoming more integrated into police work previously done only by men (Hassell, Archbold, and Schulz, 2011, p. 24).

Exhibit in Niederhoffer Lounge

“Breaking the Brass Ceiling”

Police departments were still appointing their first female officers during the 1950s and 1960s. By 1959, women officers in New York numbered 243 but only constituted 1% of the force. Progress was slow as civil service promotion for NYC policewomen did not occur until the 1960s. By 1969, there were no longer separate entry requirements for male and female officers, but there continued to be discrepancies in salaries for years.

The modern era began during the 1970s when women were being accepted as police officers, not just policewomen (Hassell, et al., 2011, p. 128). “…The policewoman of the 1970s made greater strides toward equality among her male peers than at any other time in history” (Duffin, 2010, p. 198). During that era, some female officers won notable discrimination lawsuits and the right to patrol their own beats.

While the fight for equality for women has been ongoing for decades, progress has clearly been made. The public is more accepting of female police officers and the number of women in the police forces across the nation has steadily increased. Changes have come if a male former chief of police could comment that “women brought a different contribution to policing than men…women officers are more compassionate in the ways they do their job….[but] this happens only if they do not get co-opted into being police women rather than police women” (Duffin, 2010, p. 249).

*John Jay College Library has the holdings of the International Association of Women Police (IAWP) in its Special Collections. A finding aid is available. Appointments must be made in advance to view these items.

Sources

Duffin, A. (2010). History in blue: 160 years of women police, sheriffs, detectives, and state troopers. New York: Kaplan Publishing.

Two new, free and popular smartphone apps are anonymous. There are no accounts, no profiles, no contact lists, no names attached to posts, and few archives. Is the pendulum swinging away from “social media performance” and the “ultra-curated reputations” of Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn? Perhaps NSA revelations have made youth wary? Perhaps the teen and young college-age demographic is intrigued with the mystery of a changing persona? A place to let off steam? A friend in need? Or maybe it’s the confessional again.

Secret, an app on iOS, was introduced in February 2014 by Silicon Valley engineers who wanted a place to share what they could not say face to face and without judgment: “join Secret and speak freely.” When you sign up for Secret, it links to anyone in your contact list who uses Secret, but you never know who is posting unless they choose to reveal themselves. Posts are short bursts of text, for example, “Going through a merger is like going through a double date....” In its short life, Secret has been the source of some untrue business rumors and some personal attacks, so this is not a benign site.

Whisper, for iOS and Android, was introduced two years ago, but took off late in 2013. It has more than three billion page views a month­­—more than CNN’s. A post to Whisper, for instance, says “Nobody at work knows I’m a lesbian,” and then chooses a stock photo to display the thought. On each display you see a button that encourages you to post. Whisper notifies you of posts created by people within a radius of a mile and more. Each day six posts are chosen by the site curators to feature. Founder Michael Heyward says, “There is no safer place,” and 120 real-time curators mean to keep it so.

These two anonymous apps create different network structures from those we are most used to. Whisper seems to be more novel, a departure from previous trash-talking anonymous sites and a distance from incessant “Like me.”

While working on her newest book, Prof. Gail Garfield from the Sociology department spent a lot of time in the Library, working with the microfilm delivered to her through the Interlibrary Loan service (ILL). The research resulted in her book, Tightrope: A Racial Journey to the Age of Obama, published in 2014 by Rowman & Littlefield (on order).

Interlibrary Loan (ILL) services are available to John Jay College faculty (and their authorized John Jay research assistants), graduate students, staff and undergraduate students (article requests only) for academic research purposes. Book articles, book chapters, dissertations and media items that John Jay does not own and that cannot be requested through CLICS or through the media department can be ordered via ILL. See our website for instructions and more information.

Research in action: student spotlight (from the Spring 2014 Newsletter)

Jakub Gaweda is 2014 graduating senior majoring in Global History.

Last November, I was approached by Prof. Gerald Markowitz to work on a research project for John Jay’s upcoming 50th anniversary. Prof. Markowitz, along with a few others, was asked to head a committee to create a timeline exhibit for the College. I gladly accepted the offer to join them, recognizing that the experience would greatly increase my own research skills.

As I began to attend the exhibit meetings, I quickly learned the scope of my work. I would look through books of newspaper clippings located in the Special Collections room, compiling a list of events at the college: plays, sports, funding received, grants, guest speakers, etc. Thankfully, two more student researchers were brought on to help me with what seemed at times a Sisyphean task.

Over the months of January, February, and March, I became intimately acquainted with the Special Collections room, the Library Conference room, John Jay’s newspaper clippings, and its archival photographs in ways I could have never imagined. When I closed my eyes, everything was sepia. At certain times of the day, I smelled aging newspaper, and if I listened carefully, I could hear the crinkle of paper and the flipping of binder pages. I cursed when the Library was only open till 10pm on weekdays.

Levity aside, I found the research fascinating. While I enjoyed learning about the big events of John Jay, including CUNY’s financial crisis in 1976 and the student takeovers in 1989 in response to rising tuition costs, what I found most compelling were the small stories. Over the course of my research, certain names would begin to reappear every now and again: a notable basketball player, a professor, or a student who won a scholarship. Often surfacing only in small blurbs with a few sentences, these stories often did much to humanize the history of the College. Seeing these small narratives unfold literally before my eyes made me cognizant of my own place at John Jay and how short my time at the school is, as just one of thousands of other current and former students. I felt the same way when looking at the photographs of John Jay’s history. Photos of student and campus life were just as interesting as Mother Teresa or Bill Cosby at the college.

I also can’t forget to thank the fantastic Library staff for all the help they have provided me. From Prof. Ellen Sexton to Robin Davis, who both directly helped me manage the materials, to every single other librarian I may have at one point or another asked (hopefully kindly) to open some door for me. It made my work that much easier and more enjoyable.

It’s a good thing that I did this research when John Jay was only 50, as I am not sure I envy the researcher who, in another 50 years, will have to face an even more daunting task. Maybe—with any luck—he will find some mention of me in the records.

Jakub Gaweda

—

Editor’s note: in addition to their incredible work on the 50th Anniversary Exhibit, Jakub and his classmates, Kayla Talbot and Brittany Cabanas, have made invaluable contributions to the John Jay College Archives in the Digital Collections by scanning archival items, researching photograph subjects, and creating metadata. See their work online at dc.lib.jjay.cuny.edu! —Robin D

In the past few years, a for-profit, scam-like publishing industry has emerged, exploiting the Open Access model in order to trick scholars into contributing their work. More than ever before, it is crucial that researchers establish and confirm the credentials of a journal and its publisher before they submit a paper for publication. The following suggestions on what to watch out for and how not to fall prey to these dishonest presses is culled from Prof. Monica Berger’s (NYC College of Technology) presentation “To Catch a Predator: How to Recognize Predatory Journals and Conferences” that took place at the Graduate Center on 11/26/13. Knowing what to look for should make it easier for you steer clear from submitting your work to journals that lack credibility.

How to recognize predatory journals

Solicitation and the publishing process typical of predatory journals

mass mailings of unsolicited invitations to contribute to a journal (these spam-like invitations shouldn’t be confused with the emails received from the scholarly organizations you are a member of or with emails from the journal or publisher where your past work appeared)

a strikingly quick turnaround from submission to publication

peer review process not explained and conducted in no time

no revisions required

Typical journal and publisher presentation

the title resembles the title of a well-known publication

the title suggests an overly broad or extremely vague scope (e.g., Galaxy: International Multidisciplinary Research Journal, British Journal of Science)

although the title specifies location (European Journal...) the journal is located in another part of the world

the publisher’s website include typos and grammatical errors; contradictory details about editorial policies, fees, etc.; dead links and no information about the publisher’s physical address; a look and interface that mimics the design of a well-known publisher

Editors

the publisher is also the editor

the email address is a popular one (Gmail or Yahoo) or not listed at all ( web form only)

no information about editorial or advisory boards

a large number of published titles (especially for new presses)

To learn more about predatory publishers, you should consult the blog maintained by Jeffrey Beall, the Scholarly Initiatives Librarian at the University of Colorado Denver at scholarlyoa.com. Beall maintains and regularly updates a list of predatory open access journals to stay away from. He has also put together a list of criteria for determining whether a journal is predatory (his list is more exhaustive than the abbreviated one above).

Many of the library databases provide access to scholarly journals, but the library also has many special purpose databases. TRACfed is one of them. TRACfed uses U.S. Federal Government data collected by TRAC (the “Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse”)—mostly pursuant to the Freedom of Information Act (foia) —to track how the government enforces the law, assigns its employees and spends money.

TRACfed uses this data to create reports (the TRACreports) and makes the data available to subscribers so they can create custom reports. Federal offices that are mined for data include:

Federal Courts and Judges

Drug Enforcement (DEA)

Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)

Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF)

Two recent reports—Federal Drug Prosecutions Fall to Lowest Levels in Over 13 Years and Criminal Deportation Filings Dip to 12%—provide some insight into the types of reports you might find in TRACfed.

If you are interested in learning about the “lead charges” under the U.S. Code assigned by federal prosecutors across the country, you can use the “About the law” tool. Just click on a section of the U.S. Code and find out how many prosecutions and convictions took place and what their geographic distribution was. Would it surprise you to learn that in 2013 there was a total of 71 prosecutions and 43 convictions under the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and that most of those cases occurred in the eastern half of the United States?

For those more interested in accessing data to do their own analysis, tracfed has three tools designed to meet a range of needs aptly called Express, Going Deeper and Analyzer. The data that can be accessed with these tools varies based on which of the 6 “layers” of information you are researching:

Criminal (enforcement)

Civil (enforcement)

Administrative (enforcement)

People (federal employees)

Money (federal expenditures)

Context (demographic and economic information about your community)

Using the Criminal layer as an example: if you want to know the monthly prosecution, conviction or prison sentences of one year or more, then the pull-down menu in the Express tool is the one for you. If you also want to know the lead charges, what agency brought them, and what prosecutions were declined, then use Going Deeper. If you want to create your own unique data slice on a topic or by a specific agency or statute, use Analyzer, but be sure to first take the Guided Tour to familiarize yourself with this powerful tool.

The design of TRACfed interface looks somewhat dated and cluttered, but once you get started it is surprisingly easy to navigate. It contains a massive amount of federal government data and provides robust tools to meet the needs of the beginning and expert researcher. TRACfed is the product of a nonpartisan project associated with Syracuse University.

Odd as it may sound, Business Source Complete can yield a bounty of useful information for student research. This is surprising, of course, since very few assignments focus on business specifically. But under the umbrella “business” we find management and administration, labor and personnel matters, crime and security, even intellectual property.

If a student is researching police suicide, for example, Business Source Complete yields hundreds of hits for the search terms “police” and “suicide” or “stress.” A search for “intellectual property” likewise brings up more articles than any undergraduate could use. We might expect both of those topics to be covered by this database, but what about a more sociological question? The favelas of urban Brazil offer a fertile field for research from a sociological or urban studies perspective, so it might seem a misstep to try Business Source Complete. But even here we get over 150 hits, and it would be worth investigating whether that set of articles differs from what comes up under SocIndex, for example (actually, Business Source has a few more hits than SocIndex).

When students embark on such a research quest, they must be encouraged to go where the sources take them, rather than mining the results for a specific answer. Toward that end, we should encourage them to venture beyond Academic Search Complete and jstor. After all, who knows what they may find in Business Source Complete, or even the Military and Government Collection.

You may have noticed LexisNexis’s new main page. Gone are the three content search boxes in the middle of the screen. They have been replaced by a single search box that retrieves results from news sources, federal and state cases, law reviews and company profiles. This single search will display up to 1000 results where applicable. The three content search boxes for news, legal cases and business information are now placed on the bottom of the page and are expandable (see the news search box expanded in the screenshot on the right). They perform quick searches for news articles and legal cases. The main page continues to feature links to articles on “Hot Topics” in the news. A new “Tools” menu is located on the left and features video tutorials, research guides and a list of content titles in LexisNexis.

Advanced search

You might be wondering where the advanced search form is now located. Underneath the single search bar you’ll find an advance search option that allows you to specify a date range, build a segment or field-specific search (e.g. “Headline” for news sources), specify a source, and select by content type.

Content-specific searching

For more advanced content-specific searches, click on the “Search By Content Type” option above the search box. Here you will find options for searching news, legal, international legal and other content. Click on one of these links and then select the advanced search option below the single search box for content specific search filters. Landmark cases by topic (e.g. abortion, capital punishment, and civil rights) are now listed under most links in the legal subsection of the Search By Content Type menu.

If you have any questions about the new LexisNexis interface, please contact the Library.